1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a computer-implemented system for providing vehicle information to service technicians, and more particularly to a system for providing vehicle information to service technicians using standard server/browser technology across a network channel.
2. Discussion
Automotive vehicle repairs are a primary function of automotive dealerships. Service managers, warranty clerks, parts clerks and service technicians utilize various information systems as tools for providing better customer service to vehicle owners in relation to repair services. In particular, technical vehicle information, warranty and vehicle history information, parts information and diagnostic information are needed to facilitate service at the dealership level. This information may be distributed amongst numerous existing information systems which are each centrally located at the manufacturer level. To distribute this information, custom designed dealerships systems may be configured as stand alone computers that are periodically updated or multiple computers connected to a server computer across a proprietary network.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an integrated system of vehicle and diagnostic information that has the purpose of providing dealerships with the information and tools necessary to diagnose and repair vehicle problems. An integrated vehicle information system at the dealership level provides quick access to (corporate) technical service information, helps technicians to diagnose problems quickly, and enable technicians to make better decisions about what services to perform so that repairs are done correctly.
It is another object of the present invention to use commercial, off-the-shelf software products and standard (WEB) server/browser technology that is so prevalently used on the Internet to provide an easily portable system.
It is also another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle information system that allows a technician or other system user to save and restore diagnostic "sessions", so that the technician's work on a vehicle may be set aside and later continued (ie. after the vehicle owner has been contacted and authorizes appropriate repairs) without being lost.
Further it is another object of the present invention to provide a data structure where information elements although identical for multiple vehicles are stored and maintained only once and yet attributed and accessed for each vehicle using dynamic softlinking.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a graphical user interface with extensions, including a tab metaphor, context sensitive switching between tabs and dynamic softlinking between documents in a tab, which improves navigation and usability in the system.